Looking at G/B Constellation in standard.

Christian with www.wizardden.com and Team Rogue T3ch back to talk to you about some more standard awesomeness! As you likely know, this past weekend was another StarCityGames.com standard open and with it came some awesome new decks, better versions of old decks and everything between. Which really means, competitors showed up with new takes on an unreasonable amount of Abzan and Jeskai. With that being said, as you may have noticed from the image above, I'm not talking about the winning deck list from the SCG event today (Although the winning list did look pretty sweet, and definitively spicy enough to burn a tongue or two). Instead, we'll look at G/B Constellation piloted by Brendon Freeman to a very respectable #3 finish.

Personally, I found constellation to be the most interesting mechanic out of Theros to make constructed play. It sadly only got to see tournament play with Ravnica block/M14 for a few months before it lost a lot of key cards to rotation (Primeval Bounty, Mana Blume and Underworld Connections are good examples here). Even with those losses, the first deck I tested in khans standard was a constellation deck and saw positive success with that build. Mostly coming from rotation presenting a slew of mediocre decks. The constellation cards had already gone through a slew of testing and proved to work well, with a field of people playing new and unknown cards, good 'ole constellation got me some sweet wins. As the meta continued to adjust and, after the Pro-Tour Khans, it seemed decks using the constellation build were getting out-classed. So its exciting to see one of these builds making it into a top-8.

Without further adieu....

Maindeck:

Creatures
4 Elvish Mystic
3 Hornet Queen
4 Satyr Wayfinder
4 Sylvan Caryatid

Enchantment Creatures
4 Courser of Kruphix
3 Doomwake Giant
4 Eidolon of Blossoms

Instants
4 Murderous Cut

Legendary Enchantment Artifacts
3 Whip of Erebos

Legendary Enchantment Creatures
1 Pharika, God of Affliction

Sorceries
4 Commune with the Gods

Basic Lands
6 Forest
2 Swamp

Lands
4 Llanowar Wastes
4 Temple of Malady
3 Windswept Heath

Legendary Lands
2 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Sideboard:
4 Arbor Colossus
1 Doomwake Giant
2 Bile Blight
1 Pharika, God of Affliction
3 Nissa, Worldwaker
4 Thoughtseize

Now looking at the list it's almost a mix between the B/G Dredge, B/G Constellation and Mono-Green Devotion decks from last standard. You have your mono-green staples with Mystic, Sylvan Caryatid, Courser and Hornet queen. Sure, that all makes sense. Then you see four Satyr Wayfinder, four commune with the gods, Pharika and a whopping three maindeck Whip of Erebos straight out of dredge and then you toss in the constellation wonder twins Eidolon of Blossoms and Doomwake Giant which goes really well with courser, whip, commune and Pharika. Now with all this "dredging" or self-mill going on. Murderous Cut is an obvious auto-include here (seeing as you're not in blue and trying to support a dig through time/treasure cruise). Very efficient removal that kills any creature and with no Nighthowlers in the 75 to worry about, you are free to delve away your graveyard at the drop of a hat without messing with your game plan too much, if at all. 

Just looking at the list on paper there is obvious synergy here. Commune grabbing enchantments or threats and the usual green ramp strategy which has proven to stand on it's own in this format. You gain the awesome card advantage and board control of constellation while recycling threats from the graveyard with whip activations and refilling via self mill. Nothing quite compares to whipping back a hornet queen but if that's not available at the time there's more than likely a Doomwake or Eidolon waiting in the bin to draw you some cards, wrath your opponents board or at the very least gain you some life! That leads me into my next point. Whip of Erebos is very good card in the current Khans of Tarkir standard. With the midrange decks stalling out or forced into racing damage and the tempo/aggro decks trying to burn you out of the game. Having maindeck access to a renewable resource such as your graveyard is too good to pass up. Add that to the card advantage engine of constellation,oh yeah and the lifelink! I learned the hard way that racing is not what you want to be doing if your opponent has a whip and you don't... 

That's enough about the maindeck. The sideboard looks pretty standard for this color combination. Full set of Arbor Colossus for the Jeskai tempo/aggro or even  Mardu midrange matchups. You do have to be able to stop those fliers from time to time.Then Doomwake Giant number four if you find three not being enough blights for cheap removal and extra value. Nissa, I have to imagine is for some of the grindy midrange games and of course is very good against decks like Blue/Black control.Then rounding out the board with a playset of everybody's favorite black card; Thoughtseize. The card is just good. You know what it does. You don't need me to explain it.  

Anyway, if you like drawing cards, killing creatures, and manipulating your resources to take control of a game and bury your opponents in card advantage, then G/B Constellation might be the deck for you. Of course I do have to admit that with a strategy like this there is some serious enchantment hate available in the current format. The big one is, of course, Back to Nature. Yes, it is a card that kills all your enchantments(at instant speed even) but to be fair when was the last time you saw someone make room in their sideboard for it? It's been while.

Final thought? Any deck I actually WANT to see a Pharika in my opening hand is a deck that is probably alot of fun to play. I mean, seriously, look at that artwork man. Timmy player thought aside, this deck looks like alot of fun and pretty competitive against the meta.

Thanks again for your time.

I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.

 -Christian.